Work, Wonder, and the Wide-Angle Lens of Psalm 8
The Anxiety of “What Do You Want to Do?”
In my work, I talk with college students every day. Again and again, I hear a familiar theme: a longing for purpose and the pressing question of what they’ll do for work. The question “What do you want to do?” feels both expected and dreaded. Expected, because college is often framed as preparation for a career. Dreaded, because behind it often lies a real anxiety about choosing the right path and finding the perfect job.
Anxiety has a way of narrowing our vision to the smallest and scariest details. I know this firsthand when I spiral down a thought process that dissects every excruciating detail of an interaction or imagines a hypothetical scenario that may never occur. What helps me, and what I believe helps students too, is zooming out to see the bigger picture. Psalm 8 offers that kind of wide-angle lens, reminding us where work fits within God’s larger story of creation. From that 1,000-foot view, the burden to solve every detail of life begins to lift, and a deeper sense of purpose can bring peace to the anxious heart.
The Majesty of God and the Wonder of Humanity
Psalm 8 reorients us to the magnificence of God’s creation and our role within it. I love how the psalm zooms out and in, taking us soaring through the heavens to witness God's majesty across all the earth, then bringing us swiftly down to a baby's cradle to hear its first cries. The psalmist writes,
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
Right away, God’s creation reveals His glory. And strikingly, it’s not the vast expanse of the heavens that silences the enemy, but the gentle cry of a child. Already, humanity is shown to be a thing of wonder. What is this creature that God uses to quiet the forces of evil?
As we begin to wonder what this means, verse 3 jerks us back into the stratosphere and up into the heavens again. From above, we see God crafting the solar system with his fingers. It says,
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place…
The largest star is nearly 2,000 times the size of our sun, yet God shapes it with His fingers and sets it in place, like a potter molding clay and placing it effortlessly on a shelf. Overwhelmed, David bursts out in wonder:
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
This is not doubt, it is astonishment. Why does a God so glorious take such special interest in us? Yet He does, not only seeing us but caring intimately for the details of our lives.
Crowned with Glory and Entrusted with Dominion
At this point, the psalm shifts from the glory of creation to humanity’s place within it:
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet…
After weaving His magnificent tapestry of sun, moon, and stars, God crowns humanity with glory and honor. He entrusts us with dominion over the very creation He Himself made. God does not need help ruling His world, yet He chooses mankind to steward the earth and care for His creatures.
Our response can only be wonder, echoing the words from The Message:
“I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?”
Restored for Good Work
It is astonishing that God has chosen us to do good work. The psalmist doesn’t explain why things are this way, he only bursts into praise. What we do know is this: God has entrusted humanity with the task of exercising dominion over the earth He created. And even when we turned away in disobedience, God did not abandon us. Instead, He sent Jesus to pay for our sins and restore us to what we were made for: a right relationship with Him that overflows into good work (Eph. 2:10).
From Anxiety to Worship
It is easy to get trapped in the smallness of the micro-self, fixating on the details of our jobs while losing sight of the bigger picture. But Scripture reminds us that all work is a gift and an honor. When we offer what we do for God’s glory and His name, it carries eternal significance.
Like the psalmist, we can stand in awe that God has crowned us with glory and entrusted us with dominion. And we can let that wonder move us from anxiety to worship, as we joyfully pursue the work we were made for.
